About Chishtiya Ribbat

Chishtiya Ribbat is an old wine in a new bottle. Old wine: for the fact that it's a Chishti khankah with all the traditional/ historical features of one and for the part of new bottle: its never shy to incorporate modern gadgetry of online presence including its Murabit TV.

Being a khankah it's a place to stay for all the seekers of the Sufi path. It welcomes people from any Sufi order, any religion without any discrimination.

Chishti in its hue or flavor, Chishtiya Ribbat offers a unique experience. As a tavern cannot exist without a cup-bearer, similarly Sahibzada Asim Maharvi is the spiritual leader at Ribbat. Trained in Chishti traditions by his murshid Hazrat Ghulam Suleman Tounsvi ra, Sahibzada Asim Maharvi provide guidance to all the murabit (people staying at Chishtiya Ribbat).

 

    Our mission could not be different from that of the Chishti Order that is to disseminate love of the Creator and Created. Our teachings are based on the Chishti notion of Ishq Ustad (Love is the teacher). We are interested in educational approaches that call forth that which is inside each person. Chishtiya Ribbat resists the idea that education comprises only of courses, pre-requirements, and credits.

Our Vision: We seek to be an institute that embodies what we wish to see in the world: a just and loving community where people feel respected and are free to be themselves without fear.

We also seek to be a institute where students are not only thinkers but doers; devoted to reason and investigation when it comes to the questions of religion; civic minded and interested in congregational life as an important element in creating a better society; exemplary in character, and tolerant of different opinions yet firm in personal convictions.

In today’s era, people have developed various misconceptions about being a Sufi. For some, the external pruning makes them credible enough to be a Sufi. While, for others belonging to a progeny of a saint, visiting shrines and delivering lectures on Sufism are fair enough to attain the ‘manazils’ (stations) of spirituality necessary for a Sufi saint.

Unfortunately, both groups are disillusioned and are inconsistent with the spirit of ‘Tasawuff’ (spirituality). Comprehending the Sufi path is altogether different than to striding on the realm of it. By merely knowing the king’s life style never makes one a real king, similarly it takes a lot more to be a Sufi than to just grasp the concept of being a Sufi. Nonetheless, a genuine Sufi soul would never profess and advertise his stature of ‘namat’.

Human life is pivoted on many variables and constants. Since Adam, we have changed a lot in a sense but a good chunk of us is yet unaltered. Our average height, life expectancy and way of life has drastically differed since our first step on the planet Earth. Shifting from caves to adobes and moving from there to prefab skyscrapers, and now we are designing our houses for altogether a different planet; Mars.

It is a story of nothing but change alone. Yet there is a sphere of our life as old as Adam himself. Our search for reality, quest for the Truth, our yearning as a creation for our Creator is impervious to those changes. From stone to slingshot, swords to guns, canons to hypersonic missiles what is evident is change. But the real fearsome, destructive forces we face are the same ancient; jealousy, greed, anger, lust and pride.

 

A Khankah is a place where these constants are addressed. So in essence there is nothing such as a ‘modern khankah’.  As mentioned at the beginning it is the same old wine just in a new bottle. Yes, we acknowledge that some people get attached to the old wrapping. But then this is what a khankahs have always taught, as worded so beautifully:

 

“distinguish between husk and kernel.”

By Hazrat Moulana Jalal uddin Rumi (ra)

 

Change is a creation of the same Al-Khaliq, the Creator. So it too deserves to be respected. With this in mind Chishtiya Ribbat has always welcomed any instrumental change. So if the usage of modern technology, internet, social media and all its gadgetry qualifies for a modern khankah than Chishtiya Ribbat is one.